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Thank you good evening welcome to the Walnut Creek Transportation Committee meeting September 17th
2026 the secretary please take a roll call
student Commissioner Zellin
Commissioner ash present Commissioner Guerrero
present Commissioner McMahon
Commissioner patch is absent
chair crawling present
All right. Thank you. So we will now move on to public communications
This portion of public communications is for anyone who wishes to address the Commission
within our
Transportation area on topics that are not on tonight's agenda
So if you wish to speak on any of the two topics that are on tonight's agenda,
there will be a public comment period for those agenda items.
So do we have anybody from the public who wishes to speak
on general transportation comments to the commission?
And are we taking Zoom now?
No. Okay.
We have no members of the public waiting to provide comments.
All right. Thank you.
We'll close this portion of public comment.
All right, next item is our consent calendar.
The only thing on our consent calendar are the meeting minutes
of the May 21st meeting.
We did not have a July meeting.
So I'm just going to ask if anybody on the commission has any edits
or corrections to those minutes.
Commissioner Ash?
I move to accept the minutes.
I need to poll the other commissioners first.
Sorry. Commissioner McMahon.
and Commissioner Guerrero.
No edits.
Okay. And the chair has none.
Would you like to make your motion again, Commissioner Ashe?
No, I'm busy now.
Get your own show.
So moved.
All right. We have a motion.
Do we have a second?
Second.
All right. Motion made and seconded.
Will the secretary, do we take a roll call vote
for the minutes or no?
It's a consent item.
We can just accept it as is.
I think we usually do so for that reason we will. Okay and uh uh
Commissioner Zelling wasn't here though. So that's yeah why I didn't poll commissioner Zellen. Uh commissioner ash
I
Commissioner Guerrero
Hi commissioner McMahon
Hi
Uh patch absent chair Crowley. Hi
Thanks. All right. Thank you
All right moving on to consideration items for the commission item a the Newell Avenue bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure
Projects, do we have any presentations from staff?
The floor is yours introduce yourself, please. Thank you. Uh, good evening commissioners
Um, thank you for giving the opportunity to talk to you tonight about the newell avenue bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure project
I'm going to preface this project. It's going to be presented by me, Austin Potto, as well as Brianna Byrne.
This project is actually phased out into two phases, so I'll be talking about phase one, which is currently in design,
and then Brianna will be the ringer talking about phase two, which is in the more conceptuals.
So I ask also that any questions on phase one being held to the end on phase two just because they are connected.
So with that, we'll begin.
So on the agenda today
We'll be first be talking about the background of the Newell Avenue project in the Newell Avenue corridor
So that includes the proposed plant or the plans that have basically proceeded
The design and the conceptual of this project go over the funding source
So which we'll talk about later as well as the what the improvements for the phase one
which is the near-term plan and the improvements for phase two which is the
long-term plan phase one is currently funded phase two is not and then so
under phase one we'll go over the project timeline the just the design
elements that we currently have right now and then for phase two we'll talk
about the proposed corridor improvements from and then for phase one it's from
from Newell from Broadway to Capitol Street,
and then phase two is Capwell to City Limits.
So to go over the background,
we have a whole list of different plans here.
I'm only gonna talk about
the Iron Horse Corridor Transportation Plan.
Brianna will go over the others
as they're more relevant for phase two.
But back in 2020,
the Iron Horse Trail Corridor Improvement Plan
outlined different types of proposed recommended improvements
for the intersection of Newell and Broadway,
which is an entrance for the Iron Horse Trail.
So using that as basically the beginning of this project
as we looked at the plan and the proposed improvements
that were recommended on that plan.
And then again, Brianna will talk about the others
as they become more apparent.
So now I wanna talk about the intersection needs
at this intersection of Newell and Broadway.
So one, this is a Safe Routes to School project.
So this project aims to make walking and biking
more accessible and safe for children walking to school.
And in this case, it's Los Lomas High School,
which is just south of the intersection.
Where at this intersection currently,
a lot of students as well as adults commuting to work
use the Iron Horse Trail to go north-south on Broadway.
The one issue that arises is the Iron Horse Trail.
The two heads are, one is on the northeast
and the other is on the southwest.
So to cross Iron Horse Trail,
you have to go through two separate
pedestrian crossings, which is about 100 feet each.
So you're crossing about 200 feet of travel lanes,
about 14 to 15 different, 14 to 15 lanes
as you're going.
And then also you're, you know, you're crossing east-west, you're waiting there, you're crossing
north-south.
So this project basically aims to rectify that, create an area where the, not only the
students but all the commuters and everyone else using the trail can cross this intersection
more safely, more accessible.
So now I'm going to talk about the one bay area grant, OBAT grant cycle three.
This is where we received the funding.
So back in 2023, we received about $7 million in federal funding to construct safe routes
to school improvements on four locations.
So the one is the Newell Avenue Broadway intersection, which I will be talking about tonight.
The other three are Walnut Boulevard, Buena Vista Avenue, and Cedro Lane and Bono Drive.
Those are much smaller projects that were separated from this project due to the nature
in the scale of Broadway and Newell.
And then out of that $7 million, about four and a half of that federal funds is dedicated
to Newell and Broadway with an additional $600,000 in local match traffic impact fee
funds.
So now we're going to start getting into the nitty gritty of the Newell Avenue and Broadway
plan.
so again this is phase one and this is funded through the Caltrans and the
official title of the plans is the Newell Avenue and Broadway Safe Routes to
School project and this rendering right here we'll go over the plans as we go
through but this is just kind of a general look of what the it would
somewhat look like once all the construction is done. So we got a big
wall of text here but I do think the timeline is important to kind of see
again where we started and where we are and then what's left. So again like I
mentioned before there was the studies done previously which gave the
recommendations for this intersection and again in 2023 we received that 7
million dollars in federal funding. In the two years preceding that the city
He has done traffic studies, has done public outreach,
has done the conceptual plans to basically narrow in
what our scope is, what the estimated cost is,
and what exactly get feedback from stakeholders,
members of the public, Transportation Commission,
and all that.
And then so, with all that information,
with all that work done,
we started the federal process with Caltrans.
So whenever you are awarded federal money,
you have to go through Caltrans
and go through a long lengthy process to get the money.
So in 2025, August 25th is when we received
the allocation for federal funding to be used for design.
So we're not able to actually design the project
until Caltrans gives us the design money.
So that was in August of 2025.
And then following that year, pretty much right after that
is when we started the process to look for
and hire a consultant to do the design work.
And so that we hired them in April of 2026.
And then in that same year, just about a month ago,
we received the environmental clearance from Caltrans.
And then actually this month
is we received the 65% plans,
which we'll go over today or tonight.
The last three dates here are anticipated dates.
I want to highlight them in particular
because these were basically our goal dates
when we set this project and when it was starting.
So as you can see, anticipated in November,
2026 is receiving right-of-way clearance from Caltrans
and then January, 2027, having the 100% final plans
as well as funding allocation
from Caltrans for construction.
Just like with the design, we cannot bid the project
until we receive funding from Caltrans for construction.
And the reason I want to bring this up
is because the Caltrans process,
working with Caltrans is a very lengthy process.
For instance, the environmental clearance
that we received in August, we submitted in February.
So it took six months to get the environmental clearance.
So, and we'll see in the next slide
why I wanted to bring that up.
So now we're gonna start talking about the plans itself.
things are going to get a little complicated,
I should say, so I'll use the little pointer
to kind of help show everybody what I'm talking about.
But to kind of start off with the affected users
and who would be benefited from the accessibility
and safety that this project would provide.
So we have a list there of Los Lomas High School
like I talked about, users of the Iron Horse Trail,
we got Broadway Plaza in the northwest corner,
We have Kaiser, who their office is more west,
but they have the parking lot on the southeast corner.
Whole Foods is right there on the southwest.
And then County Connection,
they obviously have, I think, three bus stops in the area.
Like I mentioned before, currently in 65% review,
and we're currently working with Caltrans
for the federal funding.
And then the last line here, Construction Summer, 2028.
The reason we set it to 2028 is because
in a perfect world, if we receive,
if we get the plans done by January, 2027
and get all the Caltrans aligned,
then we would be able to basically get all that stuff
by 2027, January, bid February, and then construct by June.
However, just by seeing how long it's been working,
taking to work with Caltrans so far,
and in previous projects, construction summer,
2028 is a more reasonable timeline,
especially be because this is a safe process school project,
we don't want to construct when school's in session.
So that's why we're looking at 2028.
In a perfect world, it's possible for 2027.
So now we're gonna start the actual design improvements.
So the main gist of this project is at this intersection,
the Broadway and Newell.
And so let's see if, okay, yeah, so we got this.
So this intersection and so one thing
that we're, the main thing that we're doing
is these curb extensions on each corner.
As I mentioned previously, how do you turn it off?
Okay, we'll just do that every time.
Technical difficulties, apologies.
And so as I mentioned previously,
the crossing distances on each leg
is about 100 feet, give or take.
So reducing that by bulbing out the extensions,
getting those curb extensions,
we were using that crossing distance
will also be enhancing visibility
where people biking and walking at the corners
will be more visible.
And then also reduce traffic calming,
we are tidying the radiuses for turning
so you have to slow as you approach the right turns.
And then also to accommodate these bulb outs,
these curb extensions, we are right sizing Newell
Broadway. So when Newell was initially constructed, it was constructed for higher vehicle traffic
and right now it is currently underutilized with the current traffic counts that we have
right now. So we are going to be using excess lanes that aren't needed for all of the traffic
and using that to construct these curb extensions
as well as, as we'll mention in the next slide,
raised bike lane.
Another important aspect of this
is this diagonal crossing right here.
As I mentioned previously,
one of the safety issues is crossing
two legs back to back.
So right now, what the plans are,
if you're on the trail on the southeast or the northwest,
you'll be able to cross diagonally all in one swoop,
limit the total crossing distance,
and to allow that,
we are going to implement a pedestrian scramble,
which basically is an additional traffic phase
that says no cars can move at all.
It's only pedestrians and bikes.
If you're a car, you're not moving.
And then so, and then the last,
couple things is one design issue when doing these bull-bouts construction is, like I said,
retiring the radius, while that's perfect for cars, we have to take into account larger
vehicles like fire trucks, delivery vehicles, and garbage trucks.
So to help them make those turns, we have to do median modifications to cut the noses
down just to make that turning movement better for them, and one significant one is this
median right here east of the intersection. We need to break this whole thing out and
move it up so that people can make this right turn because we were moving the slip lane.
So this turn is pretty tight. And then another thing is the signal relocations. On the north
east corner, basically right where my little mouse is, that signal would be in the path
where the crosswalk is, so we would need to relocate that.
That is the only signal relocation we have right now
is quite an expensive item, construction item,
so we're trying to reduce the number of signals
we relocate, which we'll call up in the next slide.
And then the last thing on this slide is it's not shown here,
but in a separate project right about right here,
we are gonna be putting in a bus shelter.
So we'll have a bus shelter there,
again, not shown here, it's on a separate plan,
and that will be constructed prior to this project.
So now going on improvements of Newell Avenue,
this is taking off from where we last saw the previous side,
going all the way to Capitol Street.
So the main thing of note here
is this raised bike lane right in this green right here.
So this will tie into the previous slide where that goes in
and that will connect you to the Iron Horse Trail
on the southwest corner.
We are ramping them up just east of the Capitol intersection
and the reasoning we're doing it there
is because if we do it anymore to the west,
either right before the intersection,
we would have to relocate some signals
and as I mentioned previously,
that is a very costly endeavor
and because we're sharing this pot of money
with three other projects,
the funding is on the tighter side for this project.
Another thing of note here is the driveway modifications.
To accommodate this raised bike lane,
we have to modify the driveways.
So one particular driveway is the one going to Whole Foods
at Nursery Lane.
Because the bike lane is going to be at sidewalk level,
we need to raise the driveway going
into the bike lane and sidewalk,
and then ramp them down into the street
where they will do whatever they need to do.
But to do that, we need to ramp them up,
which requires us to do driveway modifications here,
driveway modifications here,
and then because we are ramping them up,
we are installing storm drain infrastructure
to fix drainage issues that arise from that.
And then we're also, this median here to prevent left turns,
we're installing that, that was originally there,
but when Broadway Plaza got installed,
this got taken out to allow for an additional left turn lane,
so we're reversing that.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
Let's see.
Okay.
So I know this is probably a little bit hard
to read everything and kind of see everything,
but these are their cross sections of Newell Avenue.
If we go back to the last slide,
looking at the quarter right here.
So we'll go forward again.
So the top cross section is East of Capital,
street this is basically right after we ramp the bicyclist up uh on to sidewalk level um so
currently right now existing because this is just this is these are the proposed cross-sections
so going east there are two through lanes in a in a parking lane uh so we would be on the the new
configuration will only be one through lane and then the parking lane that excess space being used
by the new bike lane and then as we get to the the middle middle one here this
is right before nursery lane as you like if you were to you were going down going
down Newell and you're taking a right into Whole Foods that's what this one is
and again you'll see we have the bike lane raised bike lane up here at street
at sidewalk level and then we have the right turn,
the through and the left.
So again, this is using that lane
and we're actually keeping the same number of lanes here.
So previously existing this as two through lanes
and opens up to three, then opens up later to four.
This is where we're doing is having one lane
open up to three, open up to four.
So we're still having the same number of lanes here.
we are reducing a lane here going in the opposite direction
where this is normally two lanes.
And then this is our median
that we talked about earlier as well.
And then the last cross section here
is right before you turn right onto Broadway from Newell.
So basically kind of you're almost at the Iron Horse Trail.
Again, same thing, you have your raise sidewalk level
bike lane.
And then again, the same number of lanes.
The only modification right here
is the right turn lane.
Currently is a through and a right.
Now it's only gonna be a right.
And then again, as with previously,
we are having one less lane here to make up for the space.
I don't know why he keeps doing that.
Might need to be holding the mic there.
Okay, making sure, okay.
So here we have striping.
I'm not gonna go too much in the detail on here.
I just wanna talk about this for parking.
So, because we are removing southbound lane on Broadway,
and we're actually removing a through lane
in each direction, we have space to have parking
where otherwise it was a travel lane.
So, in the instance of the right in front
of the Broadway garage on Broadway
north of the intersection, that was a through lane.
It's now because we're removing that through lane,
we have enough spaces to put a whole bunch
metered parking spaces there for people you know going to Broadway Plaza so
estimated and we're looking exploring maybe about 20 additional metered spaces
there and then on the east side of this intersection on Newell where there is a
receiving lane after the slip lane which is no longer thank you thank you Matt
right here so this is what I was talking about the 20 or so spaces and then this
continues down here. And then the about a about five meters non-metered spaces
right here where there was a receiving lane and no longer. And then we have
striping going on down west along Newell. This I just again want to just this
just bring this up because this is what it's connecting to phase two. So the
The raised bike lane begins right around here.
And that's where the major improvements are ending
for phase one and for this project.
We are doing all these striping and bike lane improvements
through the intersection and beyond,
because since we are reducing lanes in the directions,
we need to properly align bicyclists and vehicles on NUEL
before they get to here or else they're kind of,
they can't, there's no infrastructure for that.
So that's what this right here is.
And again, that's what's tying into phase two.
And then also, we, back in January,
we presented with the Transportation Development Act Project
to do some striping on Newell, that's what this is.
It's basically doing quick build materials
from the end where phase one is ending,
all the way to city limits to one,
align vehicles and pedestrians properly,
but also have quick build materials
that we will come in for phase two
and do the hardscape improvements, the permanent improvements.
And then this is the grant application
that was brought to you back in January.
Again, it's all quick build stuff.
So delineators will have striping there.
and again, this mainly is to align vehicles
and pedestrians where they need to go
and then get the road ready for when we come in on phase two,
whenever we receive funding for that.
And then one element that I do wanna talk about,
and this is something that we are looking,
we're really looking for feedback from commissioners on
is the decorative aspect of the crosswalk.
So the picture on the left is what it currently looks like.
On the north and the west leg,
there is like a stamped thermal plastic
that kind of looks like brick layout there.
And on the other two legs is just standard crosswalk.
Those two,
these two red stamped thermal designs
were required by Broadway Plaza
when they were built from the design review board.
And so what we're exploring options as what to do
with the rest of the intersection.
And so, you know, again, where we need to have,
we're looking at keeping this on the north and the east,
on the west side,
and then continuing that red stamp thermo brick layout
on the other corners as well to have it consistent.
And then we have the opportunity
for a decorative theme design for the diagonal crossing,
similar to locusts in front of the leisure.
We have that piano crosswalk.
We have the opportunity to explore different options
as far as what aesthetically we want.
So this right here is what was included in the application,
the grant application.
It includes like a horseshoe, horse-themed crossing.
So that's something that we are looking for feedback on.
And then I'll pass over Breanna for phase two.
Yeah, so thank you, Austin.
Again, my name is Breanna Byrne,
and I will be covering where we are with phase two.
And this is where Austin talked about intersection.
This is really looking at
Newell from that corridor perspective.
And so this slide looks familiar.
Austin went over it, specifically that Iron Horse Corridor Transportation Plan.
So that one was intersection specific.
All these others are more corridor specific.
So we have that Olympic Boulevard Corridor Trail Study.
This was a county study, and it tied bicycle facilities from Lafayette through the county
through Walnut Creek, all to connect to the Iron Horse Trail.
So Newell Avenue is part of that corridor study.
Then we have our city's bicycle plan adopted in August 2011.
Newell Avenue in that plan was identified as class three, which is share rows.
These are currently in place and this is where cyclists have to share the road with vehicles.
The more recently adopted curbside management plan.
This is from 2025 and was brought to commission several times.
nine from that plan is to add low stress bicycle facilities around downtown.
So this is the idea of downtown Walnut Creek is such a destination.
Let's get cyclists to there.
So providing those facilities around the downtown.
And then it is currently in draft form, but there's the Contra Costa County transportation
plan.
It's current, but one of one of the projects in that plan is to have protected bikeway
circuit around downtown.
that is reflective of our curbside management plan. And then I do want to
highlight at the bottom, so MTC, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission,
this is the body that oversees the nine Bay Area counties. This section of Newell
is included in MTC's priority development area as well as their
regional active transportation network. And then more locally or Contra Costa
Transportation Authority or CCTA, this section is also part of their pedestrian priority area.
So I mentioned kind of that curb management plan and CCTA's countywide transportation plan,
the high quality low stress facilities. That is currently not what is out there right now. So
So what we have is this class 3, that's the photo here.
There's the term level of traffic stress.
So stress level 1, this is something that all ages and abilities think Iron Horse Trail,
you can take your kids on this facility, where level stress 4 is really only suitable for
maybe 1% of the population, those that feel incredibly comfortable riding with cyclists.
What we have now, on Newell, falls roughly at stress level three, which is suitable for
only about ten percent of the population.
So with this project and our current design standards provided by Caltrans and for traffic
engineers, we have to be providing context appropriate facilities.
So the project need, along the corridor, we have class three, we need something more dedicated
for our cyclists.
And I do want to point out, okay,
so there is an existing wide path right here
between Broadway and Capwell.
That is an existing class one path.
So cyclists can ride on this pathway, and what we've figured
out from our outreach is not many people know that,
so that's a real indication that we need
to be providing signage.
So while we have class three, there's this beautiful class one
for just such a short section.
In working and speaking with Kaiser,
and if you've ever been out here right around appointment
time on top of the hour, you've seen either Kaiser employees
or Kaiser visitors doing an illegal crossing
between the shopping center on the north side
and then the hospital.
It's a very well-known crossing location,
and the city's previously pursued grant applications
due to crosswalk here, and ultimately we just needed to,
it needed more than just a single crosswalk improvement,
it needed corridor wide improvements to reduce the speeds.
And so we're incorporating that crosswalk
as part of this new project.
And then again, as reflected in our Olympic corridor study,
we do have a gap in bicycle facilities.
So with the build out, we have that RRFB,
the rectangular rapid flashing beacon.
The example here is on Mount Diablo, at Broadway Plaza,
you know, providing a safer crossing
where we already know there's a desired place
to cross for Kaiser.
And then adding in these buffered bike lanes.
Okay, so Austin kind of went over those improvements.
So on this top side, we have the near term.
So let's look at Newell Avenue west of Main Street.
So if we put ourselves here, so this is the Kaiser Hospital.
And then this old Trader Joe's.
So in the interim, we have just a striped bike lane
buffered by some posts.
And then the right turn lane is curbside.
With the full build out and signal modifications,
we're able to move the bike lane curbside,
put that right turn, essentially swap the two,
and then travel lane and turn lane.
So going from near term to long term,
that's what we're looking at there.
Moving closer to the Broadway intersection,
so in the near term, we just have this buffer,
turn lane, turn lane, through lane,
and then kind of that share out,
and this is if we're headed from Whole Foods
to the Park Mead neighborhood, that's the direction
to travel here, and it's right after the roadway
narrows over that bridge.
So in the near term, this is what
it's going to look like.
In the build out, what we're doing
is we're having to modify this median, narrowing it in order
to fit the vehicle travel lanes and that bike lane.
So as Austin mentioned, as part of this timeline,
we did traffic analysis.
And we did it using 2019 counts, 2022 counts,
and 2023 counts,
just to make sure that we are fully understanding
the corridor post COVID-19 pandemic.
So based on the analysis,
based on these proposed recommendations,
there really is not a substantial additional congestion.
At most, and this is at most,
the average vehicle delay increases by 17 to 23 seconds
during the peak hours at the Newell and South Broadway intersection and if we
think about the improvements that are happening there where we're adding a
dedicated pedestrian and bicycle only phase of course vehicles are gonna get
extra delay and I will note all of the LOS is LOS to your better which meets
the city standards and then for queuing additional vehicle queuing at certain
locations so Newell Avenue at Main Street, Newell Avenue at Capwell and then Newell
Avenue at South Broadway with the movements called out. So the benefits of
both phase one and phase two that scramble both helps pedestrians and the
cyclists. For the pedestrians we're removing that right turn slip lane where
we saw those Los Loma students kind of packing in. For the cyclists we're able
to separate them from the vehicles and then we're also able to expand our
citywide and regional bicycle network. So we talked about the operational
analysis we're also going to go into the outreach so again as Austin mentioned
phase one was a safe routes to school study and so that was really where our
outreach began back in 2022. But since then we've had pop-up events so once we
had a you know a good solid concept plan that we wanted to bring to the public
We've been at this intersection on bike tour every day.
So we were there in 2025 and 2026.
We were at the farmer's market back in November.
We did a dedicated pop up at this intersection
right around high school dismissal time
to get those students feedback.
And that was also in November.
We had a community meeting.
There was a public online survey.
We did community notices through the city socials,
as well as we flired the nearby neighborhoods,
both park mead to the west and then the community to the east.
Just this past weekend was Bike Family Fest and so this photo here in the lower left is
the feedback they received from the families that stopped by and then we've spoken to you
all as well.
Again Austin mentioned several significant stakeholders along the corridor but they have
been included as part of this outreach process and will continue to be especially as we move
phase two, eventually from outreach to design. So again we've talked with Kaiser, the high school,
Park Mead Elementary School, Plaza, County Connection, Whole Foods, and more. And speaking
with Kaiser Permanente, there is a very very popular driveway that goes into that parking lot
there on the right here. And again if you've been out here at the top of the hour,
You've seen both cars trying to turn right into there as well as trying to turn left and there's there is queuing there
With phase 2 design there while we are taking away that dedicated right turn lane
cars can still stack within
What we call the number 2 and then any passing vehicles can use the additional lane as Austin mentioned Newell Avenue is
is overbuilt. It used to provide access to Interstate 680. Once they closed the ramp
in the 90s, the vehicle demand has never been quite that same. So we're right sizing the
roadway. And so this, based on the volumes that we have out there, meets that vehicle
demand. Moving into next steps. So taking what we've
heard from the outreach and this concept plan, we submitted to CCTA's call for projects.
We're currently waiting results. There's several pots of money. Here we have listed
OBAC cycle four, which was we got money for phase one from OBAC cycle three. If we don't
get this one, there are other pots of money. CCTA is essentially asking for projects from
all agencies, and they're going to try to fit all projects
into the appropriate pot, and hopefully we
can get some money for this one.
We did ask for $7.8 million.
So this phase two, we're looking for $7.8
if we want the bicycle facility at sidewalk grade,
like Austin talked about for phase one.
We did a secondary cost estimate to hopefully be more
competitive, where if we needed to shave things off and reduce
cost. We can put the bikes at vehicle level with some type of vertical separation, some type of
concrete, but instead of raising them up to the ped level, they'd be at vehicle level and that
shaved off about 1.5 million. So again, we're about to enter into kind of the Q&A portion,
but just high level. Phase one, in the eastbound direction, there is going to be a continuous
bike lane. In the westbound direction from Broadway there's that existing class one path
that's right by Broadway Plaza. We're going to get them through that capital intersection
and then the cyclists are going to get dropped into the existing,
thank you Matt, are going to get dropped into the existing conditions here.
So this is the near term in the long oh and then once we get to California we're going to do
just striped buffered bike lanes here and that will tie into the county. In the long term,
have that class that separated class four for the whole length both east and west get the
cyclist to California and then from there again that buffered bike lane. And with that
open it up to questions to kind of guide the conversation. Austin I have some talking points
feel free to provide this or if there's anything else that's on your mind, let us know.
All right, thank you both for the nice presentation. So time for commissioner Q&A,
so we'll start with our student commissioners, Ellen, who's brand new to the commission. Welcome.
Thank you. Yeah, so I just had a few questions. So one, how would there be like signage, I guess,
kind of telling the bikers that go through the Whole Foods driveway, kind of, when to stop and how that, kind of, be coordinated.
So, the question is, so if you're a cyclist and you're heading towards Whole Foods, towards Broadway, like, what type of signage is there?
Yeah, about the intersection.
So, I don't think we've gone that far. So, they would have the right-of-way, technically, so they don't have to stop.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, and then my other question was, how much space would the Class 4 bike lanes take
away from the road because you said you wanted to kind of separate them a bit more?
I can go over—I'm not sure if we can kind of blow up the—not sure how much we can
blow this up, but this is—again, this is our current design plans for the cross-section.
Let's see if Matt can kind of zoom in here.
There we go, just to kind of see some of the numbers.
We'll use this as an example.
So if we look right here, this right here,
this point is where the current face of curb is.
Like if we were to walk out there right now
and see, hey, where does the sidewalk end?
It's right here.
And so we are building out from that curb face.
So all this sidewalk right here is at 8.7,
that is gonna stay the same.
We are gonna be reconstructing it to gray
just to kind of make the path a little bit easier.
But right here is where we're going to be beginning.
So we have about a six foot bike lane.
Again, this is elevated.
And then we have another about two foot,
basically another curb slash buffer slash additional,
additional protection from the vehicles,
for the bicyclists from the vehicles.
And then we have our,
So that's basically about eight feet.
Then we have our gutter pan here,
but that's included in the total width.
So about eight feet of total bike lane.
And then as far as long-term,
we won't really know until we,
like as far as the specific numbers
until we actually start doing the design work for that.
Okay, yeah.
And my final question was,
do these bike lanes go all the way
to Los Lomas High School in that area?
or like how far do they go?
So the, I guess both near term and long term,
the primary access for cyclists to Las Lomas
is from the Iron Horse Trail, which is,
so at the Broadway Newell intersection,
so at this intersection,
the Iron Horse Trail continues down here,
this is the Whole Foods.
If you keep going south,
there's a back entrance to the high school.
So either the cyclists, they'll ride the Iron Horse Trail,
they'll do this movement, they go on the back gate,
or they just go through the parking lot.
There's like a little bit of a ramp
further south right there.
Commissioner Ash.
Yeah, thank you both.
Great work, and I remember this coming here,
I think years ago with those traffic counts,
I think I might have been the only one here though.
And you guys alluded to them several times,
but didn't put any numbers in.
Do you have some numbers you could share?
Bicycle, ped, car, crash?
So I don't have them here.
We can get back to you.
I can say, the 2019 compared to 2022 and 2023,
eventually it leveled out.
It's about the same.
The ped's and the bike's.
We do know, based on the counts,
as well as the collision history,
there are cyclists on the sidewalk
getting into conflicts with driveways.
Vehicles aren't expecting bikes on the sidewalk,
and so we not only know it from the counts,
but also from what we hear from the outreach,
what we've seen, is there is that desired need
for an actual dedicated facility.
Yeah, if you could send a follow-up email in the next week
and just indicate some of those numbers
and some of that feedback, I think
that'll be important to share.
And then you talked about the traffic count on Newell
for the cars is underutilized.
Could you elaborate a little bit more on that?
I think that was the direction coming down the hill
into Broadway, but I don't know.
So yeah, so I mean, for a little history.
So when Newell was built, that South Broadway extension,
it wasn't there.
It was this intersection was a T intersection.
This leg didn't exist.
And then as you get further towards the freeway,
there is an on-ramp.
So if we think about, so volumes over the years
have changed significantly here.
And when I say the roadways overbuilt,
there's the level of service standards, A through F,
For A, that's free flow, you can go as fast,
you're the only one on the road, you can just keep going.
F is where we get that congestion.
Right now, here, I can pull on something.
What I can say is from like LOSD is a standard for a reason.
So at the absolute peak, you can get vehicles through.
When it's not peak, it's a little bit less,
It's more like closer to B, A, B, C, D is kind of that desired peak.
Anything at peak that's more free flow, the roadway is too large.
We're maintaining a facility that could be much smaller.
And it goes into trying to balance, are we maintaining a large road that doesn't need
to be a large road?
Because the vehicles aren't there.
It's about balancing the needs of the roadway.
Okay.
Thanks.
All right, Commissioner McMahon
Yeah, I really like this project especially the scramble
I've had some close calls over at that intersection with people turning right and you're riding your bike across the road
And it's very scary. So I think the scramble is a huge benefit to that intersection
You guys said it's like a hundred feet to cross right now. Do you know how much is gonna be around?
with the bowl outs
Give or take about I'd say about 70 to 80 in in on in the 100
That's already, I think the east leg is shorter than that.
But I'd say on average, you're maybe looking
from going from maybe about a 20 to 30 foot reduction
in each leg, right?
Because we're bulbing out, we're bulbing out,
we're removing a lane which is on average about 11 feet.
We're not taking up the full lane,
but you can imagine removing a lane in each direction.
That's maybe about 10 feet or so.
So I'd say you're probably looking
about 20 foot reduction in each direction.
As far as the specific numbers, I'd have to,
we'd have to look into that.
Yeah, but it'll be significant, right?
It's not going to be a tiny little bump.
Yeah, it's not like we're reducing.
Oh, you walk five foot less.
It's a pretty big jump.
OK, cool.
That's awesome.
And then I was a little curious.
Is there any plans?
This might be too early to plan for this,
but trees and plants over there, it
is kind of a bare intersection at the moment.
So I was just curious, like, can we put some trees?
Can we put some nice plants in there?
So we are beginning discussions with Broadway Plaza
right here where we're doing this bull belt.
It's kind of hard to see, but right here,
we are looking to do landscaping here to, you know,
make some beautification efforts.
We are, we're going to be working with Broadway Plaza
about tying into their existing irrigation system.
On the opposite side, there is no existing irrigation
to basically maintain any sort of landscaping.
So currently on the north, the northeast corner,
we're not going to be implementing any landscaping,
but on the northwest,
we are looking to implement landscaping there.
And then on the southern two corners here,
we're looking right now,
we're just going to be putting in mulch there,
and then our park staff is going to be looking
into what they would like to implement there
as far as landscaping.
So on three of the four legs,
we are looking at landscaping
and various other green beautification efforts.
Okay, yeah, that's awesome.
Cause yeah, one thing about waiting,
especially on a scramble,
I'm not sure what's the maximum wait time potentially,
but when you have shade, it's a much nicer wait time.
Yeah, that's like, if you've ever been out there,
especially at like the Broadway corner,
you know, there's not a lot of shade coverage
and you can get pretty hot there.
So yeah, we are looking at what we can do
as far as landscaping and just seeing what's possible.
Okay, cool.
And then I was a little confused about the bike lanes.
So is there gonna be a bike lane
on either side down Newell of like in the end goal or?
Yeah, in the end goal, full east west city limits.
So we're going to have everything.
Yeah, yeah.
And then like the current bike lane that goes by the garage.
Yeah, we love like a sign over there
because I do ride my bike over there
and I thought I was breaking the law when I was doing it.
So that's cool that you guys kind of recognize that.
So I don't know, can you guys like do some painting or just
like a sign or something?
Yeah, and that's something that we're,
from the feedback we heard from this outreach phase two,
we are incorporating in phase one, yeah,
the signing, the striping, those little things
that we can improve.
OK, cool.
Yeah, that'd be great.
Yeah, so again, I kind of had this pulled up,
the Stripping Plan pulled up.
I'd say it's impossible to read that.
But yeah, we are implementing a whole bunch of signage
and way finding.
And again, this is, like I said, this is the 65% plan.
So, you know, we still have a long ways to go
for the 100%.
So any sort of little things like that
are easy to kind of slot in, you know,
any like major, huge design changes.
We can't really incorporate that.
But, you know, stuff like adding an additional signage
that we get from feedback from the community,
from the commissioners are easy to kind of slot in,
we can do that.
Awesome, that's great.
And then, sorry, I got a few questions on here,
but it's because I love the project.
Do you have to push the button to get the scramble to go
or will it be automatic?
So because this is a scramble,
like a pedestrian on any corner is gonna trigger that phase.
So we're actually doing passive detection.
so you do not have to push a button.
Love that.
That's awesome.
That's the best.
And then I was curious because when
you're coming out of Whole Foods, you can't turn left.
So are you going to be able to do a U-turn at the intersection?
Or how are people, if people do want
to go down Newell, left out of Whole Foods,
how are they going to be able to get to that point?
So that Whole Foods area.
Well so, I guess two points.
So looking at this plan, what's kind of shaded
or kind of grayed out is existing.
So that left turn is more or less staying in the same spot.
Yeah.
And then that curve is more or less staying
in the same spot.
So if U-turns are allowed there now,
they could fit with the project.
But what I will say is most what we do,
because left turns are not allowed out of here right now.
They'll kind of work their way through these properties
that are connected and then they'll make the left
at Capwell right here.
Oh, okay, got it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been back there, yeah, yeah.
I actually forgot that left turns are legal right there
currently at the moment,
because people definitely do that.
Okay, and yeah, I'm almost wondering,
could you improve some signage over there as well,
just so people know to go back there.
Maybe they do because they probably shop there all the time.
So technically, because this is private property,
we cannot direct traffic on private property.
I don't know.
That makes sense.
And then last question for the crosswalk by Kaiser.
You said it would slow down cars based on these designs.
So I was just curious, is it just because of the roadway
design we're hoping cars will slow down?
or like, is there any option for like a raised crosswalk?
I don't know if it's too fast of a street for that.
Yeah, well, so that, I mean,
that's something like we could look at as part of the design,
a raised crosswalk or a table crosswalk.
We don't want the speeds to be too high.
This is posted at 30, but you know,
if we design for something much slower, say 25,
that can open up as a design possibility.
When I said like we'd be incorporating
traffic calming elements. So right now again it's very wide so we could be
reducing the travel lanes so just by just by making the cars feel less
comfortable going quickly they're gonna be reducing their speed so that's one
way that we can you know reduce car speed through that pedestrian crosswalk
and then we also have some curb extensions and then that pedestrian
refuge in the middle. Okay so the curb extensions will go out into the street
little bit. So the crossing distance will be pretty short. It would be short and
correct. Okay perfect. Thank you. I think that's all my questions. That was a great
presentation. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. And then to Commissioner's
ask question about the counts. Yeah so at Broadway Newell the pedestrian crossing
volumes as high as 152 which isn't the PM and that's on that west crosswalk north
south but it's anywhere like I think the lowest number I see here is 50 so this
is in a single hour so anywhere from 50 crossings to 127 in a single hour and
then cyclists at that same intersection we have 21 southbound rights 29 north
bound throughs, and then a couple movements that are in the single digits.
One follow-up question?
No, I'm just processing.
OK.
All right, how about we move to Commissioner Guerrero?
Thank you for the presentation.
Concern about these removal of these right lanes.
Like, that new to Broadway, like, that's an important way
for people to get through like coming off of you know down lower south on
Broadway and then making that right turn right there by the Dunkin Donuts and
everything I mean that's a major way through for anybody who lives up in
those up in those neighborhoods. So to clarify we're talking about so if you're
on Newell heading eastbound that eastbound thing coming up south Broadway
making a right turn on the Newell.
Are we talking about removing that right lane?
We're talking about removing the slip lane.
So right now, there's what we call that pork chop,
where the right turns can kind of just at higher speeds,
they can make that turn, correct.
So we are removing that, correct.
Southbound, no, or Northbound?
Well, I mean, you're on South Broadway
and you're going Northbound,
making the right turn on the Newell.
And then, obviously, on the other side,
coming Southbound on Broadway,
making a right on the newel by the parking garage.
We're moving that right lane.
So, okay, so the northbound,
starting with your comment about the northbound.
So that's this movement right here.
This was kind of that free movement.
There's gonna be a left turn lane, a through lane,
and then a through right turn lane.
So vehicles can make this right turn.
Based on the counts we had collected,
again, the level of service, this is still adequate
within the city standards.
And if you, based on city observation,
city staff observation, the consultant,
if you're here during the peak hours,
a lot of that right turn volume
is actually people trying to skip the light,
and then they'll either do a U-turn here
and they'll keep going up Broadway,
or they'll work their way through the neighborhood.
So the volumes there actually were not that high
to kind of raise a concern for staff.
And then to your question about the southbound.
So south Broadway, south of here,
it already merges down to one travel lane.
And so if anything, we're just merging them further up.
So instead of, it's gonna be a left turn.
And instead of two throughs, it's gonna be one through.
And then that additional lane is gonna become
a dedicated right turn lane.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know, I'm concerned.
there's I know I know for a fact I mean I understand your count and stuff I get
it but I know for a fact there's a lot of cars that come through there and I
know that you were also talking about putting metered parking along there
coming down southbound of that new intersection by the parking garage I
mean do we need meter parking but there's that big parking garage there
and if we don't need the meter parking can that just a slip through right lane
turn. So what it's so the rate so we bolded out we curbed it and that is one
to reduce the crossing distance but when we did this one of the very earlier
traffic studies we were trying to balance the vehicles on the PED so
crossing the length of a crossing will dictate how long a cycle length is and
And so it behooves us to try to shorten this.
And so we did a balancing act of like,
do we need this or do we not need this?
And ultimately, this was one of the easier ones to reduce
because the volumes were not there.
And so when we can shorten this,
we were able to bold this out, this is a bus stop.
So this is an improved bus facility
where the bus can stop in lane.
And then to your point about the metered parking,
we are exploring it right now it's heavily used by kind of more commercial vehicles
who don't you know they park there and then they work their way through it could be loading it's
it's something that we would review as part of kind of a curb management analysis okay um
i'll just say that you know the way drivers are now it's it's becoming more lawless and less
enforceable and so I just I'm concerned at the frustration of drivers over time
with with more traffic but I'll move on I wanted to ask about what I was saying
regarding there is no left turn out of Whole Foods so if we limit that we
eliminate that that slip through right lane turn from Newell on the south on
on the Broadway and going south.
Is that what we're talking about
or am I not understanding that?
So if you're coming down Newell
and you wanna make a right turn on the Broadway,
headed towards, let's just say Danville, right?
Is that right lane gonna be no longer
a slip through right lane or is it not one now?
So that eastbound right is not currently a slip lane.
It is just its own dedicated right turn lane
and it would still be a dedicated right turn lane.
That one is staying a right turn.
I see we're supporting the bike lanes moving down Newell in all these phases.
If you keep going down Newell and you go under 680, everything kind of just stops.
It becomes very rule-esque.
So are we also planning on moving nice bike lanes into that neighborhood?
So I'm assuming those are the people that are coming out to use the bike lanes on the
Newell.
So they they are but there's if you go further down Newell there's also schools there's Park
Mead and Tice so there's also cyclists as part of that and you have residents going
to work going to there's it is a very well-traveled route so it's not just those residents.
To what to your point about what are we doing so that is the city limit and so from there
It becomes the county and that's where that Olympic corridor trail study came in because there's so many agencies at play
There's Lafayette. There's the county. There's Walnut Creek. They did that larger planning effort and so
Through that community. I want to say it's that share owes and
That's where the bikes share with the vehicles and think about that's the to your point. It's a rural nature
It's lower volumes lower speed and so that's where you can have that mixing. Okay. All right. Thank you
All right, so, you know, you're getting so many questions because you did such a good job and you gave us so much information
You're spurring on the conversation. So bravo
Let's see at some point you probably don't have it right now. It would be interesting to see
kind of a
Simple uncluttered overlay for the intersection of what the Broadway Newell intersection with the curb cutouts and stuff would look like
Sorry about that what they would look like today versus tomorrow. Yeah, so
Yeah, so we do have that that concept plan if you want to go to the first slide
Yeah, so we have what it will look like
so this is what it will look like and
In our workshop we had
kind of that before and after you can click back and forth. Do you have like a top-down drawing?
It's simple like you know red line is old blue line is new
You know again also we could provide you know looking at the plans again
These are basically just screenshots of the plans
You know we can do some work to kind of declutter it and make it you know again
I just wanted to show you know everything here obviously it's pretty hard to see everything
That's kind of why I was here to tell you everything. Yeah, I don't want you guys to do more work
I'm just if you have something somewhere that
That's an out to us that shouldn't be that difficult and you know, you know, we can overlay it with like existing aerials
You know
We can kind of take this right here
Get rid of some of the you know
Call out some of the you know riffraff stuff and kind of overlay it on an existing aerial to kind of see
You know this is these are our plans right now
And then you can kind of see the differential between the images you know the aerial images of existing infrastructure
So we could look we could look into that that that wouldn't be too difficult. We can talk with our consultant on that does
Sorry, can I ask you a clarifying question does that change in January with the final?
35% of the plan or we have
When you say change do you mean like this I'm talking about doing the overlay today versus the plans
But would that actually change in four months with updated submittals? It wouldn't change like I said at 65
We're not we're not looking at changing like significant
So the other may be changes as far as like, you know semantics or or smaller things to kind of button up the design
but as far as like, you know the fact that we're putting in a
These bulb outs right that's kind of stay consistent from now until you know, January or whenever we get the final plans
so
It will be like there may be some changes
but as far as like the general like layout and overlay of the work that's done that
That should be pretty like we would be we would be hurting if that changed somehow
So so we don't want that to change. So yeah
All right. Thank you
one of my original questions which
You sort of answered all save for comments, but the question was does the bike traffic justify?
sort of the
Project so but I'll talk about that during comments
We have two public comment
Submissions that came in writing one. We got just tonight
Can you talk about?
How you feel about any potential impacts for the people living in Park Mead in and out of that neighborhood because that's one of the
That's kind of the main thread of one of the letters we received
yeah, and so
I believe Commissioner Ash had mentioned that staff brought
New Avenue and like very very infancy phase to Transportation Commission and we heard a lot of concern from the Park Mead neighborhoods
remember one was that it's gonna bring in more traffic where you know at the
end of the day we're reducing travel lanes from traffic engineering
principals usually reducing traffic lanes does not encourage that demand
through a neighborhood I think it's more my interpretation of their question is
you know they live in Park Mead Newell is their main in and out so let's say they
commute and you know down 680 or up they gotta go up the other way but the
other way they can get on there pretty easily but just or they're going
downtown is their life gonna be worse by making Newell more constricted so it's
not traffic to park meet it's hey I live in Park Mead and I go downtown a lot go
of Whole Foods a lot, is this going to take me, you know, 10 more minutes each way, is
kind of what I'm hearing.
Yeah, and I know you preface this with, like, what do I think?
Yeah.
As a professional engineer, I'm speaking on terms of delay.
No, I do not.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
You mentioned something later on the scramble.
First off, I love scrambles.
I think that's a great idea, and I think somebody said earlier, I think you guys said earlier,
earlier you know when people are crossing cars are not moving like from a
pedestrian standpoint I would love that at every intersection to be honest that's
why I love scrambles I know it's not feasible but the thing that caught my
attention was the passive detection on the scramble so let's talk about the
hundred and fifty two peak crossings of pedestrians there will there be some
sort of cumulative cap, right, so that, you know, after the intersections have been shut
down for three minutes, five minutes, whatever the number is, you're going to let some car,
you're going to stop the pedestrians and let some cars go through, because I have, I've
seen intersections where I feel like the crosswalk, especially around schools, you know, the buttons
pushed like every 10 seconds and then traffic really backs up yeah so getting
into kind of like that that goes into kind of how Matt and I would program the
signal okay yeah and so there's kind of that base walk time and then that
flashing don't walk time and that's based on the length of the crosswalk I
I think, Austin, what did you estimate that crossing at?
Like I said, like existing, we're looking at maybe 100 or so, and.
So, for, yeah, so it would be that base walk time plus that length of the crosswalk divide
by 3.5, and that would be the time that cars are waiting.
Okay.
We would never let, the scenario I'm imagining, we would never let, you know, everyone's trying
to go to school today, and, you know, the cars sit there for 15 minutes as all the kids
to keep going and going and going.
I if if if that ever happened, the volumes here would be crazy.
OK, yeah, that would I can't.
Thousands of pet volumes.
OK, maybe warrant that thousands and thousands.
But yeah, I have no idea.
It's just a theoretical question.
I'll just say the passive detection is an option.
You'll still have buttons,
but the passive detection is to place the initial call
and then it will serve the pedestrian phase like it does normally.
Okay, you know 30 seconds or something and then it will terminate so it won't be extending the pedestrian call that totally makes sense
Thank you, Matt
Why should say mr. Secretary?
One of you mentioned earlier a an illegal crossing from Kaiser we referring to pedestrians or vehicles
This is pedestrians
Yeah, so if we think about Newell Avenue
Specifically right by the hospital
So, here's Trader Joe's, here's that parking garage where the entrance is right here, there is kind of that bus bay, and then there's kind of this nice little walkway that leads into the hospital.
This, pretty much exactly where we show our proposed crosswalk, this is a very, very popular pedestrian mid-block crossing.
There's a lot of food up here that the staff that Kaiser staff are ordering at and they're they're going across
And then also there's just parking people park in the slot and then they run across the street
The only thing that caught my attention was illegal because I thought in california now
Jay walking technically is no longer illegal. So jay walking is at an intersection or
Correct. You're right. Yep. So yeah, it's not legal. It's not illegal. It may not be smart
Okay. I just didn't know if we had something different here at Walnut Creek.
This might be the last question. When the traffic studies were done to figure
out how much this would impact traffic, do you know if the traffic studies included or
anticipated, you know, we have 95 units going into the 699 Inatio Valley Affordable Project.
You've got the new eight story.
There was a prior project plan there.
I remember that from design review.
This one's different and bigger,
but so now you've got an eight story, 100 plus unit.
There's another one at Mount Diablo,
another new, taller one.
So I'm thinking about,
there's a lot of new approved,
higher density residential
that's gonna add even more cars then.
And I'm wondering if that was somehow anticipated
in the traffic studies.
So to the yes, CCTA they have like a growth model and that incorporates land use and what
land use can be developed so yes, but I will say primarily existing volumes were used.
When you pair kind of that especially affordable housing but that dense housing with transportation,
You as a user, especially if you don't have a parking space in that facility, your primary
mode could be walking and biking, and that's why some of these downtown locations, paired
with bike facilities and improved transit, maybe the residents don't even have a car.
Those are the modes that they're electing.
Okay.
Those are my questions.
Are there any follow-up questions before we move on to public comment?
All right, there being none, let's move to public comment on this.
Item, so if anybody wants to come speak to the Commission on this item you get an entire two minutes to speak to us
And then hopefully you've filled out or will fill out a speaker card
My name is Michael Vecchio resident of Walla Creek and member of a new group called walk bike Walla Creek
I love the project the idea of it. There's some you know, I think pretty minor
questions or comments
I'm a member of Kaiser, I walk out to Kaiser whenever I have a appointment that I can walk to.
And so I'm a little, I'm hoping that the bicyclists that are going to be on sort
of the sidewalk class four facility that there's adequate signing legends on the sidewalk
to separate the bicycles from the pedestrians.
There shouldn't be any conflicts at the right turns at I think Maine and Broadway
if you're putting in the signal with signals and signing to indicate
that cars cannot turn right when the scramble phase is on.
So that's what I'm assuming that signal operation would be like.
And those are eastbound movements.
the westbound movements wondering about when bicyclists choose not to use the
class 4 facilities like you're doing, Ryan, they're going to be in the road and
a lot of bicyclists want to be in the road, not a lot of them but enough
bicyclists that want to do that because they want to ride fast, they're doing it
more for exercise, they got the Lycra clothes on type of thing. I don't know if
there's gonna be any additional striping and or signing on the streets to make
sure that the bikes could feel okay and also that cars know that those bicycles
are allowed on the street especially if they're moving on much as quick as the
cars I'm not sure about the bus stop on the north side of Newell east of Maine
if that bus stop is going to continue to be there because that's going to stop
right in the bike lane. Wow, that was way too fast. It was an entire two
minutes, but thank you so much. There never is enough time, especially when there's an hour
and hour presentation to limit it, published comments to two minutes really
isn't. Yeah, I appreciate it, but thank you. Any more speakers? Hi, my name is
Tony Phillips. I live in Parkview neighborhood and I think you did a great
job, so thank you. The only comment I have is that at the end of New Will Avenue, as
you go under the bridge into the Park Mead neighborhood, that's the only place
I've ever been nearly hit off my bike, because cars come zooming down that
really wide road and the road suddenly narrows, it gets really dark as you go
under that bridge and cars can't even see you as they come in. So anything you
do to calm the traffic before that underpass would suit me fine. And there's a sign that
says 25 miles an hour on the far side of the bridge. Could you move the 25 mile an hour
up to the junction by the gas stations to make all of that 25, slow cars down before
they go under the bridge, or even make the whole street whole and new 25 now, because
if you're making a narrow street, it should be probably 25, not 35 anyway.
That's my only request.
Otherwise, I think everything's perfect.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any more speakers?
Come on up.
My name's Tony Almeida.
I live on Newell in the Park Mead area.
I've been going down Newell to the Iron Horse Trail for at least 20 years while I was working.
I'm retired now.
Still work at John Muir Hospital, so I still go down there.
I went to the last meeting, I made some notes based on that meeting.
I sent in Brianna and Matt.
So I'm just a concerned citizen trying to figure this out.
I looked at the attachments for today's meeting.
I'm almost done.
And I'm talking about myself.
I just want to make sure that the right turn lanes where the bike is on the right
and the car is also going to turn right, that there's some sort of signals
or something that keeps the car from turning into the bicycle.
That's my main point.
Did I go over my time?
Okay, so that was the main thing.
You did a good job with this, thank you very much.
And the presentation that was attached, the right hook is basically my main thing.
There was one other thing.
Oh, there's one place where it goes from a six-foot bike lane with a two-foot striped edge
with raised delineators to an eight-foot bike lane.
This is going west just before main, South Main.
What will be the, if it sounds like we're losing the raised striped edge and delineators,
will it just be a regular bike lane then, a solid line?
Find my exact, so this is on going west and you're coming up on South Main and it goes
from a six foot bike lane with two foot striped buffer and then it goes
to just an eight foot bike lane is all it says, so.
No this is before Main Street. Yeah the Chase Bank. Yeah I think that's for the
bus stop which we are keeping. Oh yeah existing bus stop. Some sort of complex striping to
address this. So you stay to the left of the bus and the bus can still pull in there.
Yeah. Thank you very much thanks for the extra time. Yeah thank you. Any other
speakers? There being none we will close public comment on this item and we'll
move to Commissioner comments do we want to go in reverse order are you ready
Commissioner Guerrero I'm sorry let me ask I always forget we need to
ask student commissioners Ellen first and I'll come back to you yeah so I
really like the plan especially by the Newell Avenue I think it's gonna help
with a lot of pedestrian safety I'd say one main suggestion would just be if we
could find a way to work with lost Lomas high school and have more back to school
days just to get the most out of these new bicycle lanes and I guess diagonal
crossing cannot North Gate High School will sometimes have back to school days
or walk to school days where you bike or walk to school sure no Los Alamos has
this too and you get like donuts or something like that just to I guess get
the most out of these new lanes yeah thank you commissioner Guerrero just the
last thing I have is going back to South Broadway and Newell right there along
the sidewalk where the rideshare parking lot is across from Whole Foods so
that that sidewalk right there is pretty big I think it matches the other side
but there's not a lot of people going on that sidewalk down to down that
direction I don't think because it doesn't really go anywhere correct and
it's actually not a sidewalk so underneath that is a waterway so it's
actually just a bridge deck it doesn't connect anything it's kind of just a
plaza okay yeah so the only thing I was thinking is if it's any way possible to
eliminate some of that area if it's not being used too much by pedestrians may
we keep that right turn lane on Daniel that's it
Commissioner McMahon yeah I really like the project especially the scramble and
and the bike lanes and the bus stops.
I think those are all really great.
I don't think we've commented on the design.
I do like the design of the horse,
you know, whatever you call them,
horseshoes going across.
I think that looks great.
And yeah, it just kind of adds something
to that intersection.
You know, beauty to the intersection is always good
as well as being functional.
I have, you know,
walked and rode my bike down that street a lot.
and I do see Los Lomas kids there all the time.
I was there the other day,
there was probably a hundred kids walking down that street.
So I think that's gonna be a huge benefit to the kids,
you know, coming to and from school.
And I think, you know, more and more kids,
the safer it feels, the more and more kids will use it
and parents that will use it to get to Los Lomas,
and that could take cars off the road
and potentially help traffic as well, you know,
and also just encouraging people to get downtown more,
you know, because it's easier to get down there
when you have to park and yeah so I think you know let's just push for it on
this project and get it built as fast as possible if we could do it all in one
phase that would be my the way I would want to do it but yeah thank you so much
for the presentation and just all these designs. Thank you. Commissioner Ash. Yeah
thank you for all the work put into this. If I recall this was one of the more
dangerous intersections in Walnut Creek going back to the data a couple years
ago which was why it was on a CCTA priority list it was flagged for in a
couple of different areas for that which is why we're addressing this big project
and so I appreciate that and I'm glad you were able to address the fact that
it's not gonna have a major impact on cars versus the reduction that you'll
probably get from the alternative transportation means which I know is a
concern of a lot of the people who wrote in letters also and that we heard from
today and also on the artistic design if you could squeeze in this this new
phrase that we're calling Walnut Creek, the nut. I think that intersection
Mayor Wilk should have the nut written in it as part of an artistic design. I
second that. But no great, great design thank you and oh my last part of it was
the the counties connecting on the other side right and the unincorporated areas
they had a plan on that bicycle under the bridge that somebody was talking
about, right? Yeah. So and I believe the county is looking to do like an update
on that plan. But as it stands, it's along Olympic Boulevard at Newell.
There's it becomes two options. So one option is through it continues on Newell
through that neighborhood and it would connect to the city portion. And then
the other route continues on Olympic goes down California and then again
connects to new also in the plan as it stands there's like a little triangle
wedge of two options great thank you I guess that leaves me the second
correspondence we received from a member of the public had one major question
which was you know 2022 23 approved funding requests why is it taking so long
to actually do the project. I think you guys did a really good job explaining that, which
is why I had no questions on that. The timeline kind of covered it all. You did a great job
with all the steps and all the constituents. You have the government entities you have
to deal with to turn approved funding into actual shovel in the dirt working. So I think
You did a great job answering that question for the public.
My thinking on the design of the diagonal crosswalk,
Iron Horse is really referring to the old steam locomotives.
Railroad could make it look like a train track,
or maybe a little train, kind of a train locomotive
and some cars or something.
Could be an interesting design option.
I like that.
I was wondering if those were horseshoes,
but so I must have gotten that right,
because Commissioner McMahon had that right.
And then just my, and I'm wondering
if we just don't have the full picture of numbers
of cyclists, you know?
So I'm going to separate my comment on the project
into two buckets.
The Newell Broadway intersection absolutely
needs what you're doing there.
That's a crazy intersection.
I think what you want to do there makes a whole lot of sense,
given everything that that's there.
So I'm very supportive of that.
And I'm not saying I'm not supportive of the rest.
I'm just going to pose a comment.
It's for thinking only.
The numbers that you shared for bicyclists, which I think
are maybe crossing the intersection, were pretty low.
And I don't know if that translates to the trips
cyclists are taken up and down Newell and up and down Broadway.
And I think that's why maybe Commissioner asks Ash asked for
more numbers because of the numbers are really, really, you know, low.
Of actual trips by bicyclists.
And don't get me wrong, when I was younger, I rode my bike everywhere.
I got hit by cars a few times.
So I I understand how dangerous it is to be a bicyclist.
That might explain why I'm the way I am right now.
One too many hits by cars.
But just my broad comment is big project, $8 million project.
Beyond the intersection is the money we're investing
and the changes we're considering,
do we actually have the bicycle traffic to justify it?
Because I think the public would like
to know that that question is being posed.
I'm just posing in terms of a comment.
Those are my comments.
OK.
I guess we can close this item unless staff
has any further comments they want to make.
OK.
Thank you.
I will, during the public comment section,
there is a question of the right turn hook.
So this is where a right turning vehicle
turns in front of a cyclist.
That is a signal modification, cost-wise, too much for phase one.
But it is something we're looking at for phase two.
Great.
And then there was also a public comment
talking about as far as differentiating
on the raised bike lane that are sidewalk level,
differentiating between the pedestrians and the bicyclists
so nobody's crashing into each other.
So part of that is the raised bike lane
is going to have a color differential between the sidewalk.
So there's gonna be that color differential
and we are also gonna be putting like a stripe
between them to signify this is ped walking,
this is bike biking.
Fantastic, thank you.
All right, we are going to move on to consideration
item B, park side drive cycle track improvements.
So we are ready for your presentation.
Just a point of order, clarification, Mr. Chair,
as they're getting ready is the two minutes
that we have for the public comment
is a city council policy that is set
and we abide by, just wanted to throw that out there.
No, completely, yeah, completely agree.
I agree, we don't determine that at the commission level.
Thank you for that.
Good evening.
Again, my name is Brianna Byrne
and I am an associate traffic engineer
here at the City of Walnut Creek.
This presentation is gonna be on our
Parkside Drive project.
This is an update to commission
in which I'm gonna go over the protected bikeway project.
So for tonight's discussion,
we're gonna go over the study area,
what adopted plans call for this corridor
on Parkside Drive,
as well as kind of getting into
the updated design standards for our bicycle facilities.
This project is funded by the Affordable Housing
and Sustainable Grant.
The shortened version is called HSIC.
And then we're going to go over the existing conditions,
the two project alternatives that we reviewed,
the operational analysis.
We did a safety and comfort analysis for this corridor.
And then we're going to end on the next steps.
So the project area, Parkside is on the north side here.
And then this entire shaded area is our north downtown specific plan.
What I have called out is BVE.
That's Buena Vista Elementary School.
And that's on the west of Parkside Drive.
And then I have called out WCI, which is Walnut Creek Intermediate.
And that's just on the east side.
So this street also provides access to Interstate 680.
There is an on-ramp, or it's kind of like a shortened
or a direct route to an on-ramp.
This is Lawrence.
And then further up, it connects to the freeway.
Land uses in this area, we have auto dealers, auto services,
commercial, retail, hotel, fast food, and then
low-density residential on the west side
and then medium residential density just to the north
and then just to the east over here.
So this segment is located within a quarter mile
of a 100% affordable housing project
and that's 699 YVR.
We're gonna be mentioning that in a couple of slides,
but this is how the city received funds for this project.
And then lastly, Parkside Drive
is a critical east-west connection
from the Iron Horse Trail to Bart.
So we have our Bart station,
the Walnut Creek Bart station right here.
Riviera is kind of a back entrance,
and then Parkside is that east-west
to get people on site.
So what do plans have called out?
So in our Walnut Creek North Downtown specific plan,
and that is what's shown in this photo,
again, we're looking at right here,
we have class two bike lanes identified.
And when we get further into discussion about context appropriate just want to note that one that plan was created
It's before the the update standards. So it calls out for class two
Same as our bicycle master plan in our city's capital budget fiscal year 26 27
We have it identified as a class four and again, I'll go over those details
The some other details about Parkside Drive
During our safe routes of school assessment, this is always ongoing, but I had mentioned Buena Vista Elementary in WCI
That elementary school is a feeder for WCI and there are no bus routes
and so a lot of kids are actually walking this corridor to get to WCI and
Then it is also the desired route to Bart
We have heard that if a if a resident in this area wants to go to Bart, they will actually
You know backtrack to Pleasant Hill to get on bar and then you know work their way towards the city
So there really is not a facility for them to use
They would rather backtrack to a station further back and to go to the downtown Walnut Creek station
Thank you Matt. So getting into that context
appropriate bike facilities
There's four classes within Caltrans MTCD or the MTCD
Class 1 is on the top here and so this is a this class 1 facility is shared by
Peds and bicyclists and it's completely separated from vehicles. So think about
the Iron Horse Trail. Class 2, the bikes are separated from the Peds. We have the
Peds over here, the cyclists, they have their own striped lane so they are
separated from a vehicle there can either be you know just a single stripe
or there can be a little bit of a buffer but class 2 is no vertical element so
it's just striping. Class 3, PEDs have their own area, cars, this is a parked car
and then within the travel way the cars and the bikes are mingling so again this
is more of a residential context lower speeds lower volumes. In class 4 this is
is that new classification that has kind of provided
we have additional guidelines now within the industry.
So this class four facility separates
the pets from the bikes and the bikes from the vehicles
with a distinction of a vertical separator.
That vertical element, it could be landscaping.
It could be posts.
The facilities that we have around downtown right now
striping with those delineators. So what dictates the type of facility and it's
based on the average daily volume and then the posted speed limit. So along the
bottom here we have the posted speed limit and then we have kind of the
average daily traffic. So where we have low volumes, low speeds, we could do
whatever facility we want, like the world is our oyster. But as we get further up
into the speeds and it's it for safety reasons it's beneficial to separate the
cyclist from the cars we get from maybe a class one or class four is
recommended you know maybe a class two is okay but then as we keep going up on
both of these metrics it's either that class one completely separated from cars
or where bikes and Peds mingle and then they're separated from cars or class four
or the pads are separated from the bikes
who are separated from the cars.
So where does Parkside line up?
Parkside has an annual average daily traffic of 14,000,
where the directionality is not split even.
So 9,000 of that is westbound.
So think again about that on ramp,
a lot of cars are going on Broadway,
making that left of Parkside,
getting right on Lawrence to get on the freeway.
And then only 5,000 is in that eastbound direction.
We have a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour.
And so based on these standards, based on this graph,
we are off the charts.
So in this case, it's that class one or class four
that we need to fit onto Parkside Drive.
Could I ask just a clarifying question?
Yes.
It will help me.
Hopefully it helps others.
Because the 14,000 is a big number.
But what would like an Ignacio Valley road be per day?
So it depends on where an Ignacio,
but Ignacio is essentially freeway.
We're talking 40 to 60,000 vehicles per day.
That's very helpful, thank you.
Thank you, that's a great question.
So we have these plans that state of facility is needed.
We know what type of facility based on updated standards.
So we have funding for it,
and it is through the affordable housing
and sustainable communities grant.
And again, that's H-SIC for short, and this is a program that aims to fund affordable
housing as well as transportation projects with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases.
So the city has been working with the short is RCD, Resources for Community Development.
The city has been working with them since 2020 on the financing for 93 extremely low
and low income households.
this is 100% of the units as part of this project.
They applied for several years and the third time,
so in 2024, it was successful and the project has,
it's under construction as we speak.
So the RCD they applied and as part of it,
the city committed to a list of improvements.
Class four, class two, class three,
all within one mile of this project site.
So tonight we're going over that first bullet point,
which is that class four on Parkside Drive.
So looking at the existing conditions,
this is a screenshot, we're on Parkside Drive,
we're heading towards getting on the freeway.
So that crossing, the over crossing, that's the BART tracks.
There is a center running median
for the entire length of this, the available pavement width
that we have, 24 feet.
So even if we tried to squeeze in just a typical bike lane,
it would not fit.
So something's got to give.
The funding source is shared.
All of these projects, HSIC is funding all of these.
And so because it is shared, we are very cognizant
that we need to be careful not to do costly modifications.
So costly is significant medians or significant signal work.
Not significant signal work can include
maybe adding an extra phase.
We can pull some conduits.
It can be a little bit cheaper, but if we
have to start moving a pole, that's
where that line item gets expensive.
And then the other constraint that we are very aware of
is more just volumes, and so because of that freeway access,
there are significant volumes,
and not only significant volumes,
but also heavy vehicles, so larger trucks.
So having that interaction, larger trucks,
with pets and vehicle, or pets and bikes,
we would want an additional safety in the design.
And then the last note here,
just based on the existing counts we had collected,
the pets and the cyclists,
while they were on both sides of the street,
they were mostly on the south side.
So there is some natural inclination
to be on that south side.
So looking at those constraints, we have a consultant,
and they reviewed two alternatives, where alternative
one is a two-way cycle track, class four along the south side.
So alternative two is a one-way directional class four bikeway.
And so what this would look like, you have a class four.
So these are all vertically separated.
And then both bikes are going in both directions
on the south side.
And then alternative two is kind of the more traditional sense
where you have a bike lane and it goes in the same direction
as a vehicle.
In the first alternative, we would only
be losing a travel lane on the south side.
And then in the alternative two, it
would be losing a vehicle traveling in the,
I can just start scrolling.
Can you say that again?
You're losing one lane and then two?
So because of the roadway constraints,
a travel lane has to go in order to fit a facility.
So if we're putting in a cycle track on the south side,
we're losing a travel lane in the south side.
So this direction, we'd be losing an eastbound travel lane.
If we're trying to squeeze in a bike lane with a buffer
on both sides, a travel lane is lost in both directions.
Yeah, sorry.
I don't know what I said.
and then trying to do a side by side here.
So there's a little bit of design differences here.
So with a cycle track on the south side,
we would be losing some parking underneath the bridge,
only on the south side.
On the north side, we'd be losing parking on both sides.
We had the consultant analyze Riviera and Parkside,
either right now, so right now Riviera is stop controlled,
then vehicles are free to move east and west. With the bike facility, we would want some
additional protection because we do know the major movement is doing this left turn onto Riviera. So
we would want that additional protection for the cyclists or additional protection and separation
for the pedestrians and the cyclists from the vehicles. And so that is in both.
For cost reasons, this is something that would not be part of the funding that we have available.
It would be something that the consultant would kind of do the upfront work for us now,
and then we could pursue future funding and try to get this incorporated at a future date,
whichever of these alternatives we went with.
Moving further down the corridor, there's some median modifications.
to Main Street and Parkside, regardless of which alternative, because again, we're putting
each alternative includes a bike facility on the south side. As such, we would be, again,
losing one of the travel lanes, which means losing one of these southbound left turn lanes.
That's true for both alternatives.
Alternative one modifies this westbound approach,
slightly different than modifying this one.
And it just has to do with kind of the phasing
that we have to do with the signal
and carrying that through to which movements
need kind of an extra lane.
And that's why they're a little slightly different there.
And at Jones, and this is based on the council,
we had collected while the left turns,
so that's an eastbound left into Jones,
is a popular movement.
Left turns out of Jones are actually not very popular at all.
And it kind of makes sense,
like Jones connects further up.
There's other ways for residents to make the left turn.
And so from a opportunity perspective
to reduce that conflict point,
both alternatives include removing kind of that left turn
for Jones Road, that southbound left.
So what did the operational analysis say for both of these?
So we have the existing, existing plus alternative one,
where alternative one is that two-way cycle track
on the south side.
And then we have alternative two, which is the directional.
So the counts were collected December, 2025,
and we collected it during three peaks.
we knew this was a heavy corridor for school traffic.
And so we wanted to see, is that midday peak higher
than the morning, higher than the evening?
Was there kind of an unanticipated peak?
So we had three peaks collected.
And ultimately, it was the morning and the evening
that were the peak for this corridor.
And so we analyzed the AM and the PM.
Alternative one and alternative two both are expected
To operate all these intersections are expected to operate a LOSD or better which again is our city standard
With
With we can see some F's in here LOSF
They are for the stop controlled approaches. So Parkside and Riviera
Has a stop sign
That delay is representative of only that stop sign, but the intersection overall operates
LSA
And then the so this is the delay the other operation or the operational analysis for queuing
Queuing is expected to extend at Parkside and Riviera
With a signal so if we think about the conditions now, especially that westbound left again
this is a free movement right now. There really isn't any queuing so it
makes sense where if you put a signal there with the left turn that now is a
signal we're gonna have more queuing than we did before. So that that queuing
is expected to extend and then park side and main. Again we're going from two
lefts to one so all the vehicles in that one or in that that one travel lane that
we're getting rid of are getting added to the other so the queue doubles and
And that's something that, when we get into the signal timing,
we can address and give that movement a little bit extra
time.
I had mentioned we did safety and comfort analysis.
So what we did here is looked at the potential
to reduce exposure for our cyclists and pedestrians
at these conflict points.
So conflict points are naturally going
to happen at driveways and intersections,
unless we grade separate it.
So they're always going to happen.
But what can we do to reduce them or make them low speed?
And so under the existing conditions,
when we looked at the whole corridor,
we had 47 conflict points.
This is for the peds and the bikes
with the vehicles at driveways and intersections.
With alternative one, that two-way cycle truck
on the south side, we dropped to 30.
And then alternative two, while not quite as much a reduction,
it's still a reduction over the existing conditions.
And here is kind of what that looked like.
And so we have different colored stars.
There's yellow, and then there's purple.
And it shows vehicle turning movements.
And then where those stars are shown,
it's where that vehicle crosses the path of, say,
a pedestrian or a vehicle.
And so this is the example of Parkside and Main, where it shows all the stars, where
there's driveways.
With alternative one, we can see how by moving, there's no cyclists on this side.
If we move them to the south side, we're reducing those conflict points.
Where for alternative two, if we keep the cyclists on the north side, we can reduce
over the existing and this is where we can leverage signal timing and phasing
changes. Again, that's not considered a significant signal modification so we
can leverage that type of improvement. So while still reducing conflicts,
it's not a significant, while still reducing conflicts in alternative two,
it's not as significant as alternative one. The other example here I have is at
Lawrence and Jones Road. I had mentioned the heavy volumes onto Lawrence to get
down to the freeway, so under the existing conditions,
trucks have to do that very wide turn,
so they're conflicting with the pedestrians and the cyclists.
In either alternative, the pedestrians
are still gonna be there, but with alternative one,
the cycle truck on the south side,
we're removing that conflict point.
So from this preliminary analysis,
alternative one is a recommended alternative
with the two-way cycle truck on the south side.
it performs better than alternative one,
operationally, and in our safety and comfort analysis.
So moving on to next steps.
So I mentioned we have a consultant on board.
They will incorporate the feedback they received
into a 10% concept design.
That concept design will be used
to get a civil design consultant,
and they're the ones that are gonna start working
on kind of the design plans that we have going out for Newell,
the more civil, heavy aspect.
We have several other HSIC projects currently getting worked on.
So by the time we get to this design phase, we'll have a better understanding of how much
money we have left of that pot of money.
And again, staff are always looking for grants.
But during that design phase or when we're going to get into, you know, is this striping
with posts?
Is it raised concrete barriers?
So some of those details are really funding dependent and will know more during the design
phase.
The other thing of note here, I had mentioned that of the land uses, there's a lot of dealerships
out here.
So staff knows that they have loading needs.
So traffic engineering, economic development, and our police department, we're going to
work with the businesses to kind of understand what they're using this corridor for, incorporate
designs and if not finds locations for them on the adjacent streets and with
that open it up to comments and questions. Fantastic thank you so
Student Commissioners Ellen questions. Yeah so I just had a few questions so
for the alternative two where it's like the two separate bike lanes are we
closing two road lanes or are we just doing one like alternative one? It would be
closing one westbound and one eastbound and then the other one just closing one
yeah correct we would just be closing one eastbound so what would be the
benefit of I guess doing two separate lanes over one and that's ultimately
what the analysis came to the conclusion of there can be it would be
Walnut Creek's first cycle track and so there can be kind of a learning curve
but you know as kind of the analysis point out operationally and from that
and safety and comfort, the cycle track along this corridor
is the most preferred option over that directional one-ways.
And then do we know how this would affect road traffic
now that we're closing an extra lane?
Yeah, so that goes into this LOS table or LOS A.
Cars have 0 to 10 seconds of delay.
Under the existing conditions, these intersections
Operating LSC or better and that makes sense. These intersections are quite large, especially Parkside in Maine and then with the project
LOSD and again, that's kind of that city threshold that we use
Okay. Thank you
Alright. Thank you, Commissioner. Ash
Thanks, I think that was good
My only question right now is you talked about the loss of the metered parking spaces
But I think this is a very low
Like used set of parking meters where you were talking about over there, right? Like there's a fairly consistent vacancy
So yeah, the the parking we're referring to is underneath the freeway
Yeah, so I don't even are they metered. I don't think they're metered. So they're used
by people who likely park here and then walk to BART.
So they are used.
Got it, thanks.
Commissioner McMahon.
Yeah, are there any upgrades to the intersections
as far as this project?
Especially like Civic in Parkside and Main in Parkside.
Those are big intersections, very fast cars.
And waiting, you know, for the light there
is not the most comfortable thing ever.
Yeah, and so that when our consultant
starts doing the concept designs,
we'll make sure the signal mods are highlighted.
But with the recommended alternative one,
this would have a dedicated bicycle phase.
And so the cars, when the bikes go,
the cars see that no right turn.
And so that would separate them at this large intersection.
looking I don't have
Looking at Parkside and Civic it would also be a signal modification because at that location we have cross
It's a T intersection and we have crosswalks on each leg
We have the opportunity to do a protected left and separate do additional safety improvements there as well through signal phasing
Okay, and I'm just thinking about with the sidewalk too because it's kind of a skinny sidewalk on Civic
So it's just like waiting like when you're coming off from like Iron Horse trails right there, right?
So yeah, when you come up there, it's just like a short little sidewalk
So if you're sitting there with a bike or multiple people are sitting there with bikes, it's like there's not a lot of room
So yeah, just curious if we could like make the sidewalk wider or something as well
Let's see, and then so the freeway entrances are on ramps are only on
Like if you're coming a park side on the right side, right?
So you there wouldn't be any conflicts for people trying to get on the freeway if we do an alternative one
Correct. No more than existing which because existing we have that sidewalk
Yeah, and I think that makes the most sense
The alternative one because of that and then some of the other reasons that we talked about to you
Especially just people trying to commute get on the freeway with bikers coming up. That's that makes it tough
And yeah, and I really like the slide about reducing the conflict points
With alternative one as well because I think every conflict point that's a potential for injury or you know, somebody getting hurt
And it doesn't feel as good when you're using it, right?
So it's like if we're reducing those conflict points
It feels better more people are going to use it because it feels safer not just because it is safer
So but yeah, thank you for this. This was great
Commissioner Guerrero
Good presentation. Thank you. I agree. I think I like alternative one
Do we have any numbers for bikes traveling east-west
I should have had these numbers ready.
I will say, so I mentioned our Safe Routes to School
assessment.
And what we had done at that time
is for the morning drop off.
And as everyone's going to school and then the afternoon
away from school, we had staff and volunteers kind of spread
out through the network.
And this was maybe three or four years ago,
and I put it at maybe a dozen cyclists.
And they're all on the sidewalk.
Again, they're that middle school age
and they're all on the sidewalk.
Got it, okay.
Yeah, I've traveled down here quite a bit on my bike
and it's extremely dangerous.
And so I think this is a good idea to have a bike in there.
The only thing I'd be just a little bit concerned about
is like you said, you're gonna do the outreach,
the businesses, because that area with the big old tires
and the kinders are still there
and then the auto supply.
definitely a lot of cars in and out of that,
in that little area right there.
So that's it, thank you.
All right, thanks.
Did we have any even rough cost estimates
on the two alternatives?
It would depend, and so again,
this is where the materials,
because we started having that conversation
as we're allocating money to different pots.
Austin, do you happen to remember
what our kind of ballpark for Parkside is?
Yeah, it's, we're looking, yeah, it's in the capital budget,
but I know it's less than a million for Parkside.
Okay, so small, pretty small.
Do you have any numbers that support the Jones
southbound left turn is an infrequent movement?
I know it's not a fun movement
because I use Parkside quite a bit.
Yeah, so Jones Road, doing that.
So again, this is Jones Road, apartments right here.
Doing that southbound left over the course of an entire hour
is 33 vehicles, so one every other minute.
And then in the PM, it's only 18.
So for the one every minute, every other minute,
so the half a car every minute.
For those people making those lefts in the,
I think you said the AM.
Yes.
They would have to essentially backtrack,
go the other way on Jones and cut through Walden or.
Yeah, the next closest connection is Walden.
Okay.
estimated cycle trips I heard you say 12 but that that doesn't make sense to me
so that that was based on my recollection of our morning audit yeah
yeah so those are the specifically those kids that live over okay yeah doing
doing that and so what that be 15 20 minutes I saw 12 cyclists so we don't
have an estimate currently that says you know throughout the day there'll be 500
bike trips down parkside on the new facility or the existing facility.
So as part of the operational the count collection, we we do have it
for the those those three kind of times a day that we have collected.
We don't have the daily.
And again, this goes back to Commissioner McMahon's point
where it's like we're there is a demonstrated need
and that even shows up in our plans.
The adopted plans are north downtown specific plan.
There is that demonstrated need.
and if we build it something safe, more volume will come.
Okay.
I think those are my only questions, thanks.
Anybody have any follow-up questions?
Sorry, I had one more.
Will there be any signage to direct people
to get to BART using this route?
Like on Iron Horse and then just down those streets as well?
So yeah, signing and striping is always a part of it.
And yeah, wayfinding, when we get to that,
that's something that we would definitely bring to you all
and kind of work through.
Signing on the Iron Horse Trail,
it's not technically city property,
but that's something we can absolutely work with
East Bay Regional Parks on.
Okay, yeah, sounds good.
Because yeah, people don't know,
I just feel like they might not use it, so.
I'll go, and I think you said this,
but what's the average,
what's the speed limit on Parkside and does this,
I know we're taking out a lane,
Could this then reduce the speed limit?
Very possibly.
So it is posted right now at 30.
Every state is allowed to set how they set speed limits in California.
It's pretty strict.
So what we would do after the project is installed, volumes and speeds have normalized.
we would conduct what's called an engineering and traffic survey, see if that speed limit
needs to be updated. It's nothing that we can pick. It is dictated by how vehicles actually
drive. Any other follow-ups? All right. There being none, we will open up to public comment
for this item. Again, Michael Vecchio, resident of Walla Creek and member of WalkBike Walla
Creek. I love the idea of improving this street just like Newell parks out
it's a real challenging one to do and I'm glad you're attacking it and I look
forward to the further design and all those details that sometimes can be
really challenging. Also I love the idea you know reducing the number of conflict
points that's really important to make it safer for bikes, peds. A lot of kids go
there. My kids went to school there. I would never let them walk or ride their bikes on
there. It's just that I wouldn't feel comfortable at all. And I think, you know, this is one
of those streets to a certain extent like Newell that if you have a better quality infrastructure
for bikes and peds, parents will feel more comfortable letting the kids walk there because
of Vista is just sort of at the western end, those kids, a lot of my kids would walk partway
to school there, ride their bikes, but no way to WCI and maybe this would be an opportunity
for them to get some exercise, health, and reduce the motor vehicle trips.
Last thing is that a lot of this talk was about, not a lot of the talk, but some of
talk was about Parkside being a really important east west connection and I
don't I don't I just don't believe it on my trips around Walla Creek and for the
last 30 years I think a better east west connection would be on the north side of
an actual Valley Road get some zoning changes made so that some of the
development comes in get some special easements and concept development
concessions so that you can have a fantastic sort of cycle track connection
from Iron Horse Trail all the way over to Bart. That's it. Thanks. Great, thank you
so much. Anybody else wish to speak from the public? Okay then we'll close public
comment. We'll move to commissioner comments on this item. So student
commissioners, Ellen. Yeah, I really like the plan. I think it's gonna be really
beneficial in just connecting the city especially for like students who don't
have their license or don't have cars just letting them get around places and
I guess it's my suggestion would kind of be like what I said before just to
offer some benefits to these people doing using these bike lanes like the
bike to school or just really anything just to make up for the lane like the
lost lane that we have to just make up for the road traffic that that will
cause. Great, thank you, Commissioner. I wish Vice Chair Patch you were here
because these are both right up your alley and you don't even have to preach
alternative bike paths so I actually just really want to compliment staff on
being creative, tackling a problem with the number of accidents and injuries on
on this road, being creative to find a path,
not only for safe routes to school,
but with BART and everything else.
And I think this is exactly finding that balance
between alternative transportation
and keeping up with the cars on this one.
So just, yeah, great job, Walnut Creek.
You guys rock.
Commissioner McMahon.
Yeah, yeah, this has been needed, I think,
for a long time just to be able to get to BART without a car.
And I think this is one of the best routes you could have picked, so fully support it.
Definitely like alternative one, the best reduces the conflict points like we already talked about.
And I think it'll just keep encouraging people to use alternate transportation other than cars see it to BART.
So yeah, let's push ahead and build as fast as possible.
Commissioner Guerrero.
I like the project.
So definitely like alternative number one.
Thank you.
Great. Thank you.
Great job.
I like the project overall.
I'll just toss in sort of a similar comment
to the prior one, which is we have an aspirational goal
of more people using their feet or two-wheeled vehicles powered
by their feet.
I'd like to see that too.
But then at the same time, I want
to make sure when you guys are making these decisions,
you balance.
We have limited funds in the city.
Will we get close to the aspirational use
of the improvements that we want so that there's
an ROI on the investment?
Not a monetary ROI, but that we actually
see lots of people on bicycles going up and down
the improvements.
I just throw that out there.
Hopefully, we all think about that.
It's a no brainer to me on choice one or choice two.
I think it's choice one, the two way track.
I mean, for so many reasons.
One, we only lose one vehicle lane rather than two.
Being familiar with that road.
I love the idea of pulling the bikes away from Lawrence,
that freeway thing.
People can get a little crazy around there.
It also jams up when you drive through there
and past Lawrence and you're about to execute
right turn on a North Main, that's another vehicle traffic choke point, so
why put the bicyclist there, right? So I think that's a no-brainer. I would think
it would probably cost less than choice two as well. It's a much more well-rounded
choice, easy choice for me. And I had one just related comment. You mentioned like
the BART backtrack, and I don't I don't know how deep you went asking folks, you
know why they would backtrack. I know one of the most common, like when I used to
ride BART, whether you're in the city or you're here, one of the most common
reasons people backtrack on BART is to get a seat. So you have a much better
chance in Pleasant Hill. So if you're getting on an Embarcadero in the city,
it used to be you could go back to Powell or Civic and get a seat, and then
when things got crazy, I remember I had to go back to like 24th and Mission to
get a seat. So that's a very common reason for that backtrack. And that's all
I have so I guess we can close this topic. Thank you so much for the great presentations
All right moving on to commissioners announcements and brief reports on many
activities
Let's go with Commissioner Guerrero anything
Nothing to thank you, Commissioner McMahon. I
Do have one quick thing
There's been a construction project close to my house that I've been able to kind of keep an eye on and talk to Matt about
a little bit. So I was just wondering, is there any other
construction projects ongoing that we've talked about, you
know, during one of these transportation meetings that are
ongoing right now, that we could go visit? Because I'd love to I
don't know, it's kind of just cool to see him, you know, come
to fruition after talking about him so much. And we don't have to
do it now. We just like to call Austin to the stand.
Yeah, so we're actually, you know, we're kind of wrapping up
the construction season. Right now, I believe the one you're
talking about is pretty much all that's left is just striping improvements now
so that's pretty much our last project we have for the well actually though we
are bidding the Bancroft base repair project that was out to bid and we got
we're currently going into contract with the contractor so on Bancroft Road we
are doing some paving work there and you know basically going out there picking
spots that have a lot of alligator cracking or failed pavement going out
there and then repaving that bringing it up and then in a future stage we'll go
in and do a nice overlay on top so that one should be coming up in the next
month or so we're still going for the contract so that would be that would be
the net that's not very exciting it's basically fixing potholes or cracks in
the road with new pavement? The full pavement overlay that's the exciting
part where you're paving out the whole street that's the exciting one that's
typically done at night so you'll we can see you out there at 2 a.m. in the
morning. That sounds good or is there any recently completed ones that we could
just check out? So like I said that one over by you yeah and then also every
year as part of our pavement management we do a slurry or a cape seal on various
road so this year we did it over by Valley Vista in that area in Diablo
shadows so you can go check that out just to kind of see the new pavement
that was laid out there that was something we act we actually had a
relatively light construction season this year so but that's one you can
check out yeah Montego and Tampico is another area we sluried that might be a
a little more interesting because we had a lot more traffic and a lot more you
know bike lane infrastructure stuff going on on that intersection so that
might be an interesting one to check out whereas Valley Vista is more just
overlay it restripe as existing with some additional stuff we did do in those
areas we have constructed on Valley Vista at that trail crossing as you're
you're getting closer to the driving range.
We did do some concrete kind of little mini bull bouts
to kind of basically again shorten that crossing distance.
So that was a little small project.
And then we did some medians over on Diablo Shadows area
as well for some concrete.
By the park.
By the park, yeah.
So like little median refuge as you're crossing the park
just to kind of make that crossing easier.
we get a lot of kids crossing that to get to the park.
So those are some stuff we've done.
Like I said, I think the only one out right now
is the striping for the one by you.
And then we have the Bancroft one
that's coming up the next month or so.
Awesome, yeah.
It's just cool to see them get built.
So if you could keep us up to date a little bit
on some of these, like we'd love to visit at times.
So yeah.
Commissioner Ash.
update on the Woodlands neighborhood improvements?
I'm asking.
Thanks for the request, TBD, nothing.
So based on that, will it not be until?
So we went to council to approve the funds.
These were funds provided by Chick-fil-A.
That was in June and so staff has not been able
to prioritize making those, making improvements
and determining the best improvements
based on the funding we have.
Okay.
So the plan that we've written for the neighborhood
would not be covered by the amount of funding that we have.
So we basically have to scale it back
and staff is limited on the best approach
to scale it back by.
So it's TBD, it's TBD determined.
Okay, if we can keep that.
And then you and I had a conversation,
I don't know if you had the opportunity to do that
and that's part of your report, but.
And in the spirit of Commissioner McMahan's
wanting to see projects, I was just gonna say
that probably one of the most rewarding things
spending four years on Design Review Commission
was ultimately seeing stuff built.
And so to be able to see and touch
what we give input to as commissioners is
I found that to be super rewarding.
So I totally understand why you want to go see things.
I'm with you.
I want to see them too.
And I live around Diablo shadows in there.
So I, you know,
the slurry coat makes the neighborhood look, you know,
new and fresh and all the nice new stripes
and everything is beautiful.
So thank you.
And I think that's all I have.
So staff reports.
Yeah, I'll call Brown into the stand
to provide some of the updates.
Yeah, so school's back in session.
Just want to remind anyone watching
that the city, we have safe routes to school maps
on our website for all Walnut Creek Unified School District
schools, as well as Mount Diablo schools,
elementary, middle, high school.
And these maps show existing facilities,
sidewalks, bike lanes.
So I suggest going, checking out, kind of planning
how you wanna walk or bike to school.
And along that line, back in January, Cara DeYoung
from 511 Street Smarts Diablo,
she presented on the Walk and Roll Program.
Last night was the Sustainable Contra Costa Gala,
where the Walk and Roll Program was awarded.
It was the fan favorite that got the award of the night.
So she's been encouraging.
And so this program, for one day a week,
it's walk and roll Wednesdays, walk and roll Fridays,
whatever day the school decides.
The kids are encouraged to walk and bike to school.
For every fourth trip, they earn a charm.
So they're the ones that are convincing the parents,
like, hey, I want to walk to school today.
My friends are walking, they're biking,
they're getting the charms.
And so it's really shifting the mode,
that mode change from the kids up.
And the program started at Cara School in Pleasant Hill
back in 2022 or 2023,
and those kids are now going to middle school
and that mode shift is furthering on
as they change schools.
And so it's been incredibly successful program.
It started in Pleasant Hill.
We have a couple in Walnut Creek, Indian Valley just joined.
We were out there, staff and sustainability
We're at their opening day to kind of high five the kids,
welcome them in.
So if you know any parents who aren't,
if their kid's school is not in this program,
suggest it.
It is very much run by parent volunteers.
They need those parent volunteers to make this successful.
So it is a program that the city
is very happy to partner with.
Let's see.
So lastly, it is grant season.
So I'd mentioned that we applied for the Newell Avenue
phase two.
This city also applied for improvements
at Ignacio Valley in California.
These are from CCTA.
It's a joint CCTA barge shared mobility hub project
that was presented a while ago.
We presented or we applied for that project,
as well as better bus stops too.
So this was just a couple of weeks ago.
We will let you know if we hear anything else.
Also upcoming is HSIP Highway Safety Improvement Program
and Sustainable Communities Grant.
So staff is busy trying to get us money for projects.
I will just add that this coming Thursday,
one week from today is a general plan workshop
over at Civic Park from 5 p.m. to 7.
And this is the first of a few workshops related
to the general plan to collect outreach.
And it's really high level talking about vision and values.
So really trying to see where the community lands
on various items.
So would love to have some commissioners out there.
If not, tell your friends.
There's some raffle prizes I've heard.
Otherwise, Brianna covered it, thanks.
So Commissioner Ash asked me about u-turns at Ignacio Valley in Oak Grove,
specifically the eastbound u-turns going westbound to get into the shopping
center. I pulled a collision history report for the last 10 years. I think
there was one collision that was reported many years ago with a u-turn. So
So oftentimes with collision reports,
if it's property damage only, police arrive
and there's no report written, and so it may not
be recorded in that form.
So I think that's where interesting, where
you can get into newer technology that
does like near miss.
And it uses video analytics to determine
if cars cross pass or nearly cross pass and have a collision.
So we are rolling out a project probably later next year
that will install this at various intersections.
And so we can get additional data insights
on these near miss events, they call them,
or actual collisions that would go beyond the collision report.
So I don't know if it's slated for that intersection,
although it should be.
But it's for various intersections along Ignacio
and Treat.
That's great, thanks.
And yeah, just to fill everybody else in,
I often see, I get into the,
there's two left turn lanes.
I often get into the right turn lane
to eventually make a right.
But I would say 85% of the people in the left turn lane
are actually U-turning, and it's a sharp turn,
so they tend to swerve a little bit right to do it,
and that's great that there's no real accident history there,
and I'm almost surprised and grateful, right?
Just if I can ask a question related to that intersection,
it may not have anything to do with you guys,
but I noticed a couple of new little white boxes
on a couple of the poles.
I don't know if that has something to do with our signals
or something else.
They're like the size of a shoe box,
like a little electrical boxes.
They were never there before.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
Staff has no comment.
Okay, well thank you so much.
All right, well then at that point,
we are going once, going twice, adjourned.